CDA5155/CDA4150 - Fall 2023
Assignment 1
Writing a Paper about a Computer Architecture Survey Topic
This assignment is not required for CDA4150 students. However, CDA4150 students can receive extra credit if they complete this assignment.
Objectives: Learn how to use various tools to develop a paper, including how to create a table, create a figure using a picture editor, capture and display a screen image within a figure, how to create citations, and how to create a list of references at the end of the paper. Also learn how to organize and write a paper.
Deadlines:
Oct 19: Upload the preliminary version of your paper in both PDF and latex source code in Canvas. It must include the title and author, as well as an initial abstract and introduction. It must be properly formatted with the appropriate margins.
Nov 17: Upload the final version of your paper in both PDF and latex source code in Canvas.
Your assignment is to write a paper about a computer architecture survey topic. The typical survey topic will describe a particular architectural feature and some of the research about or implementations of that architectural feature. You should write the paper in your own words. The paper must be at least 5 pages in length, have one-inch margins, and the left and right margins should be aligned.
Your paper should include the following sections: title, author, abstract, introduction section, conclusions section, bibliography (list of references at the end of the paper), as well as any other sections needed to complete a coherent paper.
Your paper is required to have items that include at least one table, one figure created from a picture editor, one figure captured from a screen image, and multiple citations that will appear in a bibliography at the end of the paper. The tables and figures should have captions with numbers and each should be referenced at least once in the text of the paper. Your citations should be for conference papers, journal papers, and/or books. Utilizing these features in your paper will give you appropriate experience that will be useful if you write an MS project, MS thesis, or PhD dissertation. The font size for the text in the paper should be 11. Note that this document should be written as a coherent paper, not just a collection of items that are forced together to meet the requirements.
For this paper, you are required to use latex and the paper is required to use ACM (https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/acm-conference-proceedings-primary-
article-template/wbvnghjbzwpc), IEEE (https://www.overleaf.com/org/ieee), or USENIX (https://www.usenix.org/conferences/author-resources/paper-templates) latex templates.
Below are some useful resources for you to write a research paper:
1. Overleaf has a guideline about how to use latex
(https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/Learn_LaTeX_in_30_minutes).
2. This (https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1463451) is a good example of a survey paper (You can download it by clicking the ‘Accepted Manuscript’ button. Your paper does not need to be this many pages, though).
3. You may schedule appointments with FSU Writing Center (https://wr.english.fsu.edu/reading-writing-center) consultants for further help with paper writing.
Your paper will be graded on (1) having the required sections, (2) having the required items, (3) the correctness of the grammar, and (4) the coherency of the writing.